Red-necked phalarope stronghold

The Shetland island of Fetlar is a hotshot for red-necked phalarope. Almost of all Britain’s breeding birds nest here around Loch of Funzie. In 2014, a red-necked phalarope tagged here was recorded migrating thousands of miles west across the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, a journey never before recorded for a European breeding bird. It had flown from Shetland across the Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland, south down the eastern seaboard of the US, across the Caribbean and Mexico, ending up off the coast of Ecuador and Peru. After wintering in the Pacific, it returned to Fetlar, following a similar route.